Fragile Spirits
by Chonico
Summary: OC Klondike is a repair pony with absentminded issues. He has been hired to renovate an old farmhouse that has been deserted for many decades. Unbeknown to him though, the original owners never left. Will they manage to scare him off?
1. Intro

Homes, houses, cottages… Equestria is filled with them, its landscape dotted by the huddled masses of the different varieties of pony homes. How one defines a home is entirely up to the individual themselves. A home can be defined as a building, a structure where one resides in with no particular focus on the ponies who live in it. This is the most basic definition of a home found in a dictionary. A structure subjected to the ravishes of time and care of, or lack of care, by its tenants. It is just that, a structure, and nothing more.

On the opposite end of the dictionary however, well, technically most likely underneath the previous definition of a home (but who keeps track of that honestly?), you have the definition of a home as being a spiritual or emotional state. Home is where the heart is. Or so it is said. It is not so much what building you live in, but the ponies with whom you share your daily life with. A home can be as massive as a town, where the merchants and neighbors greet you by name, to as insignificant as the park bench where you sit with your friends to relax and bask in the radiant warm glow from Celestia's sun.

In some cases, it doesn't even have to be a structure of any sorts, but a pony with whom you share your love and quiet moments together. In such cases, just being with such a pony is all you ever need in the whole of Equestria to be happy.

For a certain repair pony however, with his dark blue coat and icy blue mane, the latter had never really been the case when it came to defining a home.

Klondike, having long since grown warm to the idea of calling Ponyville his home, always used the first two definitions for what a home was. In a certain way though, being a repair pony and all, the first definition was honestly the most crucial to him. It made it easier for him to work with. If it was a structure or item, then he could undoubtedly fix it and perform any repair required. And, if it held some great sentimental value to somepony, then he would do all he could to fix it and hardly ever charged anything remotely close to what would be considered exuberant. Some ponies would even say that he went out of his way to get the job done.

And, as he made his way out of Ponyville, his loaded satchels and hiking backpack combo jingling with every step he took, it was exactly what he was doing. He was embarking on a journey to help some ponies out… Although admittedly, to anypony walking by, he just looked like he was playing a game.


	2. The Walk

**The Walk**

*TWANG* Came the crystalline metallic sound from his satchel as he continued to walk down the dirt road, his right ear twitching as the sound reached it.

"Hmm, hammer hitting clamp…"

Klondike was playing the same game he always played when out and about with his satchel filled with his beloved tools. There was a reason his repair shop was called "The Jingling Satchel Repair Shop."

*PING-JINGLE* "Oh, hmm, boxes of nails rattling…" He stopped for a second as he glanced back at the town he was leaving behind. He had done his best to attend every celebration in Ponyville, but now…

*sigh* "I was really looking forward to the Harvest Festival in Ponyville. Heard it can be a ton of fun especially if Pinkie Pie is involved… Not sure who that is though, but with a name like Pie, she MUST make awesome pumpkin pies!"

He gave one last longing look at Ponyville and let out another shallow sigh as he turned and began once more down the road.

"Shame this job will have me out of town for the entire month… Maybe if I'm lucky, I can make it back in time for the festival and - *CLANK* Oh! That would be the wrench…"

With every metallic jingle that escaped his satchel, Klondike's right ear would twitch as he called out the tools responsible for the noise. And, with every guess he took, his gaze became more and more glazed over as his thoughts drifted to the events that led him on this journey as he curiously still guessed correctly what tools made what sounds.

*TWANG-ANG-ANG-ANg-Ang-ang* "Easy, it's the saw…"  
><em>"Nice couple those two. I hope everything works out for them."<em>

*TING-PING* "Hmm, L-Keys hitting against each other…"  
><em>"Of course it will! I'll fix up their new home and they'll put the effort into making it great."<em>

As he continued walking and talking while thinking to himself, a skill that would otherwise be real handy if it didn't mean he was annoyingly absentminded, he continuously went over the last month's events in his head.

His current job was the result of him recently being hired by a young married couple to do repairs on a home over on the other side of the Whitetail Woods between Canterlot and Ponyville. The young couple, two earth ponies, ran a rather small flower shop of their own. They lived in Canterlot and, having heard about him and his business through a pony named Grapevine, had requested he come meet them in the city so that they could discuss the affair. The young couple, not being able to afford anything but a single bedroom apartment, had miraculously won a contest that neither of them remembered entering and had finally been able to barely afford buying a home. Being earth ponies however, they wanted to do it right and wished to start a new life outside of the big city.

That was how they came into possession of the most dilapidated farm house that any pony had ever seen.

The farmland around it had been barren for many decades. The house itself though, which sat on top of a small hill in the middle of the farmland, had at one point been a thing of rustic beauty. A testament to the simplicity and functionality that once existed in a time long forgotten. Time though, had not been kind to the building and although the structure was sound, it was in dire need of repairs.

So much so that when Klondike was shown the pictures, he bluntly suggested a bit of lamp oil and a matchbook, offering to build a new one where the old one stood for only a few bits more than what was currently being discussed. They thought he was joking…

Still, a job was a job and what they wanted was simple enough. They had already made arrangements to move in by the end of the Harvest Festival month, which meant that Klondike would have to live on site in order to save time on travel, reduce expenses, and finish on time.

It kind of helped to alleviate the sadness he felt for missing Ponyville's Harvest Festival if he thought about the job as a sort of vacation. He hadn't had one of those in a while and it put a simple gentle smile on his face thinking about it like that.

*JINGLE* "Umm, Oh, right, extra bits in case I get hungry on the road, hehe…" Klondike shook his head a bit in relieved laughter and continued down the road.

"I wonder if pumpkin pie can be made from anything else besides pump- *CRACK-AH-CRASH-THUD-PING-TWING-JINGLE-CLANK*… OHooh… ow… That was me stepping on a rock, falling, and having my satchels crash down on me… Oh Sweet Celestia, that smarts."

As he laid in a tangled mess of hoofs and satchel, his eyes widened and his eyebrows arched as something that occurred after he accepted the job and was leaving Canterlot fought to reach the surface of his memories.

* * *

><p>Klondike had just accepted the job from the young couple and was leaving their home as his thoughts wondered back and forth, trying to draw a plan on how to approach the repairs the house would need. He was unaware of the cloaked pony leaving a nearby alleyway and walking up to him as he continued down the street to make his way out of Canterlot and back to Ponyville.<p>

"Okay, first I should gather the materials and have them sent ahead so that I can get started as soon as I get there…"

"Hey you… pssst" The cloaked pony walked up to him and tried to catch his attention.

"When I get there I should check the supports and see which ones need to be replaced or reinforced…"

It obviously wasn't working as the cloaked pony began to trot next to him.

"Hey!... PSSSSST!"

"Bring down some walls…"

"PSSSSST! HEY!"

"Really open up the place so they can have many foals running around…"

"PSSSST!"

"Remove old wall panels and replace them. Same for ceilings and floors…"

"PSSST! HEY YOU! WITH THE BLUE MANE! I'M TALKING TO Y-"

"Actually, before any of that I should really check the foundations. Going to have to go down into the basement and-"

"OH FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE!"

Klondike suddenly found his face in the hoofs of a cloaked pony, staring into the darken hood, unable to see the pony inside except for the bright yellow eyes that stared right back at him.

"YOU SHOULD LISTEN WHEN SOMEPONY IS TRYING TO SAVE YOUR LIFE!"

"I'm sorry, you seem to have my face in your hoofs. Where you talking to me?"

"YES YOU- ARGH… Listen, that house is cursed! It's evil!"

"What? No, I'm pretty sure that young couple was really nice. Far from being bad pon-"

"NO YOU FOAL! The one you're going to!"

"No need to be rude. And my house is not cursed. It's a repair shop and a little messy, sure, but I wouldn't call it curs-"

"ARGH! NO! THE HOUSE YOU'RE GOING TO GO RENOVATE! IT'S CALLED THE CRIMSON ROSE! CRIMSON! IT'S HAUNTED YOU FOAL! CURSED! EVIL! BAD THINGS HAPPEN IN THERE!"

"Why would they call it the Crimson Rose? From the pictures it looked more like a faded maroon col-"

"SWEET CELESTIA! SERIOUSLY! ARGH! YOU KNOW WHAT? WHY DO I EVEN BOTHER!... You're on your own Blue One! Luna watch over you…"

And with that, the cloaked pony let go of Klondike's face, dropping him to the floor, and vanished into an alleyway before Klondike could get back up on his hoofs.

* * *

><p>Klondike was still laying on the ground as the memories of that event fought for purchase on the slippery slope that was his mind. His eyes were wide as he stared at nothing in particular, his eyebrows slightly rising while his right ear twitched furiously for him to pay attention.<p>

_"…CURSED! EVIL! BAD THINGS HAPPEN IN THERE!"_

Klondike's gaze grew wider and wider as he continued to stare down the road. In front of him stood the thing his right ear was trying to get him to notice. Time surely flew by fast when one was occupied inside their own head. He had been walking for two hours before stumbling and falling.

And now, only a few yards in front of him stood the Crimson Rose. The two story building, with its attic and porch out front, stood decrepit, beaten, and threatening atop its hill. It's windows obscured by years of dust, appeared as dark and vacant as the eyes of a malevolent beast as its window shutters, hanging precariously on rusted hinges, creaked and groan in the slightest breeze. Whatever color once adorned its exterior had long since been washed away by time and the elements. Roof shingles and siding hung precariously all around it, making the old farm house appear to be slowly melting into a dark pit-less void. It almost seemed to groan threateningly at whoever laid their eyes upon it.

For all intended purposes, the Crimson Rose looked ripe for a haunting. The overcast above it didn't help its case either.

"I've got a bad feeling about this…" Klondike slowly stood back up and stared at the structure.

*BUUURRRPP*

"OH! Excuse me… Scratch that." He said as he sat on his haunches and rubbed his tummy a bit, trying to reduce the blush across his muzzle. "Must have been the hay fries I had for breakfast."

His mind was indeed a very, very slippery slope. That memory about the warning never saw the light of day...

Dusting himself off a bit, Klondike stood back up and began to trot towards the porch of the Crimson Rose, his satchel giving off its chorus of metallic jingles as he got closer to the dilapidated home.

Poor Klondike, if only he wasn't so absentminded he would have noticed the two dark figures staring out at him from the attic window.


	3. First Impressions

**First Impressions**

"See? I told you that more of them would come... They're trying to take our home!"

"But he seems harmless… Maybe we should just say hi to him. He might be really nice!"

The voices from the two dark figures in the attic echoed eerily throughout the Crimson Rose. A chilling breeze seemed to follow in its wake as it flowed down into the rest of the house from the attic. However, as a small break in the overcast sky let sunlight shine into the attic, no pony was visible and the only thing noticeable about the decrepit attic was a slight frost that had formed on the window panes.

"Nice!" A loud rugged voice echoed loudly across the attic, causing dust to fall from the ceiling. "Those other ponies that came to drop off all that stuff in the backyard just kept saying how they should tear down our home! He's obviously the one that sent them!"

"Oh, you don't know that…" A feminine and gentle voice replied, not even loud enough to stir any of the dust motes floating in the air. "I mean, look at him. He tripped on a rock and fell rather, hehe, comically. How harmful can he be?"

"Ugh, all this time and you still don't want to listen to your older brother, I'm telling you that he's bad news!

"And as your little sister I'm telling you we should be friendly and at least see what he does first. Plus, it would be really fun to have somepony new to talk to!"

A creaking noise from down stairs suddenly resonated throughout the house, immediately followed by hoofsteps and a metallic jingling sound. At that point, the voices fell silent and the break in the overcast was concealed once more, throwing the attic into darkness again. Two earth ponies standing near the window suddenly materialize out of the darkness.

They were staring blankly at each other as they took turns glancing back and forth from the window to the door that lead to the second floor of the Crimson Rose. Even though both of them had a blurry haze to their appearance, their features were clearly visible.

The stallion, through the blurry haze, appeared to have a maroon colored coat and his mane and tail were a bright crimson color with a silver streak running through them. His cutie mark was a crimson rose losing three of its petals. The mare on the other hoof, had an almost light coffee and cream colored coat, and her mane and tail were a silvery color with a maroon streak running through her tail but not her mane. Her cutie mark was of a simple wind chime.

They both stood silently for a few seconds, the stallion staring at the door while the mare stared at him.

"Come on Crimson, please Crimmy?"

"Ugh, you know I don't like it when you call me that Wind-Chime. Especially when you're trying to twist my hoof…"

Wind-Chime simply pouted her lips and looked at him with a downcast expression.

"Oh no, don't, you know that ain't fair…"

She let out a little sniffle and the entire attic seemed to grow colder.

*sigh* "Fine… But if he's trouble you are going to help me scare him out of here. Understood?"

"Oh Crimson, you know I'm no good at that."

Crimson just rolled his eyes as he and his sister turned see-through and vanished into the floor.

"You know he can't hear you right? You'd just be talking to yourself… Plus, what's wrong with talking to me?"

* * *

><p>Klondike stood in the foyer of the farm house. His ear had gone limp and laid flat against his head as he looked at everything around him with narrowed eyes and knitted eyebrows. His expression was a mixture of doubt, concern, and oddly enough, a sharp and critical focus. He began to walk further into the building, looking at the walls, floors and ceilings as if searching for something. He could not shake off the sensation that somepony else was in the building, which was strange seeing as he recalled his employers saying that he would be doing the job alone and that nopony had really set hoof into the Crimson rose for many decades.<p>

At one point, the inside of the Crimson Rose was beautiful beyond belief. For having been a farm house, the owners had done everything in their power to keep it beautiful and well kept. Time though, had disregarded the previous owner's efforts and had degraded the place to mirror its outside. Windows stood caked with dust and grim while their once beautiful crimson curtains, or at least what the moths had not eaten, now barely hung from their hinges, faded from years of disuse.

In every room, the floors lay barren, creaking, and discolored. They were mahogany, but now, indistinguishable from any other wood. Whatever polish or carpet once adorned them had long since rotted away many years ago thanks to the elements, and left behind dark stains and piles of dirt and dust where the stucco from the ceilings had cracked and fallen. The walls, like the floors, had not fared any better and lay as barren and decrepit as the rest of the house. The once sage colored wallpaper with a rose pattern was now beyond recognition in the few minuet sections of wall on which it still hung to life as the stucco that once concealed the wood cracked and fell to the floor.

What was left of the Crimson Rose was truly a pitiful sight. And, as Klondike walked through it from the foyer into the living room, back into the foyer and into the dining room, and through the dining room into the kitchen, he took in the entire state of the house with which he was tasked to repair.

"Wow, time sure took a sledge hammer to this place. Maybe I should just demolish it all and build a new house instead…"

No sooner had the words left his lips that he realized the kitchen grew colder and colder.

"Hmm…" He thought to himself as he brought up his hoof to tap his chin and then gave a shrug. "Must be a window open somewhere in here…" He quickly took a few glances around and noticed that all the windows were closed.

"Should find it and close it before I forget. But, before that, I should make sure everything I need here arrived already."

Klondike reached towards his back with his muzzle and began to undo a few straps. Within seconds, the hiking backpack fell to the side with a loud thump and a creak from the floors, and was then joined by the satchels which he was more careful about depositing on the floor. He took one quick look around and then exited out the kitchen's back door towards the backyard where he expected to find the materials and extra tools he would need.

As soon as the kitchen door closed behind him, the voices of the two ponies returned at a low whisper.

"See? I told you he was bad news! He did send those other ponies here and plans to demolish our home! We need to scare him away now!"

"But…"

"No buts! You agreed to help me scare him off if he was bad news and he IS bad news!"

Suddenly the two ponies floated through one of the walls that separated the dining room from the kitchen. Crimson looked furious and determined while Wind-Chime just looked downcast.

"But… why does he want to destroy our home?"

"Because he's a bad pony, that's why!"

Wind-Chime simply landed on the floor near Klondike's satchels. The room began to grow colder as she just stood there looking at the bags with no particular interest in anything.

"Now, when he comes back into the kitchen, you and I will start banging the cupboards and opening and slamming the drawers in the kitchen. He'll scream, grab his things, and run out."

Wind-Chime simply stood quiet and kept looking at the satchels. The kitchen had grown very cold and a slight frost was beginning to creep out from the spot where she stood.

"Wind-Chime? Come on… We can do this."

"… *sniff* …"

Crimson just froze in place as he noticed his sister sniffling and bringing up a hoof to rub her eyes. He knew there would be no tears but it was a habit more than anything.

"Oh Wind-Chime… Please don't…"

*sniff* "I thought I might *sniff* finally get somepony else to *sniff* talk to after so many years… But *sniff-hic* why does he have to be *hic* a bad pony and destroy our home…?"

Crimson floated towards his sister and nuzzled her mane as he began to lead her away from the satchels and towards the other end of the kitchen. The frost on the floor followed her across the floor.

"Chime… please, just… it'll be okay…okay?" Crimson spoke in a soft tone while he mentally cursed the pony responsible.

"Listen, just… I'll handle this, okay? You can sit here in the breakfast nook while I scare him away. I know how you love the breakfast nook and its nice bright window with the wind-chime. I'll make sure the bad pony doesn't take it away, okay?"

She limply sat on the floor and laid her head on the window sill, a few shallow hiccups and sniffles escaping her. He gave her another nuzzle across her mane and floated into the air while smiling at her.

"Okay?"

*sniff* "Okay…"

"Love you little sis…"

"Love you too big brother…*sniff*..."

At that moment, the kitchen door swung open and Klondike stepped through the doorway. He now wore a bright yellow construction hat and held a set of rolled up blueprint papers in his muzzle. He shuddered a little as he stepped into the kitchen and noticed the change in temperature.

"Wow, musf he a hew windowsh ohen…" The blueprints slurred his speech.

He walked over to his satchels and quickly laid the blueprints out on top of them and began to study them. At that instant, his right ear sprung to life and began to twitch furiously through the hole it stuck out through on his construction hat.

*sniff*

*twinkle*

Klondike pulled his gaze from the old floor plans of the Crimson Rose, as if some unknown force was pulling his whole head, and looked at the empty breakfast nook. Or at least, he had thought it was empty.

Hanging near the window, perhaps the only remotely clean window in the whole house, under where a table would have been, there was a wind-chime. The light from the window bounced off the metallic etched surface of its hanging rods and cast an array of lights across the floors and walls.

*twinkle*

*sniff*

Klondike's ears perked up again as he kept looking at it. He cocked his head this way and that as his gaze never left the hanging wind-chime once. And then, after a few seconds, he turned around to rummage through one of his satchels and pulled out a small rolled up piece of cloth. With a determined, and somewhat annoyed, expression he then began to slowly walk over towards the breakfast nook as he held the rolled up piece of cloth in his muzzle.

No sooner had he taken his third step when suddenly, the whole kitchen fell into chaos. Cabinets, cupboards and drawers began to slam open and shut. Sending dust into the air and causing the walls to creek as the loud banging echo bounced off them. Small debris from the ceiling began to lazily fall to the floor and an eerie cackling began to pour out of nowhere.

"HAHA! RUN! RUN PUNY PONY!"

But Klondike simple kept on walking towards the breakfast nook and the hanging wind chime.

"Eh? NO! OTHER WAY! OUT THE DOOR!"

Wind-chime suddenly turned around to look at the pony approaching her. Her sniffling suddenly stopped as he now stood above her, looking at her and the wind-chime that hung above. Her eyes grew wide as she stared into his.

"Hello? Scary stuff over here! Banging cabinets and drawers? Come on! This isn't normal you know!"

Klondike laid the rolled up piece of cloth at his feet and proceeded to unroll it. Inside were a few screwdrivers and a can of oil.

Wind-Chime simply looked at the items and cloth, and then back at Klondike.

He picked up the oil can and put a few drops on the hinges of the window before setting it back down on the floor and picking up the piece of cloth it was rolled in. Carefully holding it in his muzzle, he sat on his haunches and with his fore-hoofs slowly and gently held the metal rods of the wind chime as he began to dust them and polish them a bit.

Wind-Chime kept looking at him, a small hint of wonder spreading across her features as she observed Klondike take meticulous care of cleaning her beloved wind chime. It was the sole reason she loved that breakfast nook. She didn't even notice that the ruckus from banging cabinets and cupboards had stopped.

It only took him a minute or two to get the wind chime looking beautiful, and when he was done, he then proceeded to clean the windows of the breakfast nook. Once those were clean, he undid the latch and nudged the window open, allowing a gentle breeze and some partly cloudy sunlight to pour in into the breakfast nook. The whole time, Wind-Chime sat near the window sill looking at Klondike work.

*twinkle*

"Heh, your welcome beautiful… You sound better than new. Still, can't believe anypony would just leave something like you behind."

He gently gave the wind chime a tap with his hoof and elicited more of the crystal-like metallic sounds from it. He couldn't help but smile warmly at it as he closed his eyes and sat down on the floor, listening to the wind do its job. It truly did sound beautiful.

*twinkle*

*sigh* "I hope I can do the same to the whole house. Make it as beautiful as it once was…"

Wind-Chime blinked at his comment and her expression of wonderment suddenly turned into full blown joy. She quickly stood up only to sit back down right in front of Klondike so close that their muzzles almost touched. At that exact moment, Crimson's head sprang out from one of the counter tops where he had been slamming cabinets.

"What are you doing!"

"He's not a bad pony!"

"What!"

"He wants to fix our house!"

"What? Why are you sitting so close to him!"

"I want to say hello to him!"

"He can't hear you! Plus, he might be trying to trick you!"

"What! How if he can't see or hear me?"

"I… but… he could… justgetawayfromhim!"

"No! I want to talk to him!"

"No! We agreed to scare him away!"

"But he's not a bad pony!"

"We're not discussing this right now! We need a new pl-what are you doing!"

Wind-Chime had her head against Klondike's as she repeatedly passed her hoofs through him in a sweeping motion.

"What? I want to give him a hug for cleaning my wind chime."

"Stop messing around and let's fallback to the attic!"

"No! You go back to the attic Crimmy!"

"Argh! CHIME!"

With that, Crimson lunged out of the counter top and tackled his sister. A full blown out tussle between the two ponies broke out as they rolled around the floor and began to float into the air. They were soon rolling across the roof as each sibling fought to get their point across.

"He's a nice pony!"

"He's the enemy!"

"He cleaned my wind chime!"

"You were sitting to close to him!"

"WELL, time to go check the basement and those foundations!" Called out Klondike to no pony in particular as he stood up and walked towards the basement door.

"I don't want to go to the basement!"

"I never said the basement, I said attic!"

"But you just said…"

Both Crimson and Wind-Chime stopped tussling around as they looked below them to realize Klondike had wandered off.

"Okay, fine, we'll observe him closer but just observe, okay?"

"Okay."

"And don't stand so close to him!"

"But…"

Crimson vanished into the floor, down into the basement, before Wind-Chime could finish her rebuttal. She simply sighed and followed behind.


	4. First Introductions

**First Introductions**

The sun was setting to the west, allowing what little sunlight was left to shine through at an angle underneath the overcast that seemed so prevalent to keep the Crimson Rose in the shadows for the most part of the day. As Celestia continued to lay the sun to rest for the night, and Luna prepared the moon and the stars, the kitchen of the decrepit house found itself bathed in an orange and red glow. For the first time of the day, the kitchen actually felt warm. There was still a cold air about it, but it felt a few degrees above freezing at least.

*munch munch* "I wonder if this is some sort of taboo or something… Eating dinner at a breakfast nook."

Klondike sat quietly next to the wind chime in the breakfast nook, listening to the occasional twinkle from it while enjoying a daffodil and daisy sandwich with a cup of coffee for dinner. The evening breeze that came in through the open window caused the metal rods to clink against each other in what seemed to be a concert intended just for him. It was a cool breeze, but compared to the coldness of the rest of the house, it was bearable and welcomed because it brought with it the smells from the nearby Whitetail Woods. That smell, the warmth from the setting sun, and the music from the wind chime was making it one of the most enjoyably relaxing dinners that Klondike had had in a while.

*sip* "Well, I won't tell anypony if you don't." He gave a gentle tap at one of the metallic rods of the wind chime while he gingerly balanced his coffee cup on his other hoof and took another sip from it.

He couldn't help but laugh at his own joke and as he set his coffee cup down on the floor and took a long gaze out the window towards the dwindling sunlight, he let his thoughts wonder back to the events of the day …

* * *

><p>The basement of the Crimson Rose had been rather dark and cold. The two small windows, high near the ceiling, had been too obscured by grim and dirt to hardly let any light in from the outside. Not like there was much to begin with anyways.<p>

Klondike, who had not yet been able to shake the feeling that somepony else was in the house, had to return upstairs and go outside to fetch a few lamps which he brought back with him, and spread out around the floor of the basement. He had requested battery operated lamps, but a mix-up with his order ended up with him receiving old style oil lamps and a note telling him to get with the times.

He took it in good spirits though and figured that afterwards he would simply use them as décor for the outside porch or something like that. But for now, they would have to make due.

When he returned with the oil lamps however, the basement seemed to have gotten colder than he remembered and whenever he tried to strike a match to light the lamps, a sudden breeze would pick up out of nowhere and blow it out. He had tried several times but it always ended the same way. He could have sworn that no matter which way he used his hooves to protect the flame, the wind always found its way to it. In the end, he decided to cut his losses and went back up stairs to get his hat with the flashlight on top from his satchels in the kitchen.

After returning triumphantly from his excursion to retrieve the hat, or so he made it seem that way from how he trotted down the stairs and struck a pose, he proceeded to inspect the foundations of the Crimson Rose. Careful inspection led him to conclude that although the house looked ready to fall, it really was nowhere near that point.

The foundations throughout the years had held remarkably well and only one section needed minor reinforcement.

It was a welcomed surprise and one that he constantly remarked upon every few minutes by saying how homes weren't built to last like this anymore, and how excited he was to try and restore some of its former glory to it. Still, admiration was no excuse for laziness or a poor job.

Having taken the time to do a second inspection to make sure he didn't miss anything, he was content with what he saw so he made his way back upstairs and proceeded to do the next thing required to start fixing up the place… Clean.

Admittedly, Klondike was not the most apt of ponies when it came to cleaning up. It was not that he was a messy pony by nature, but mainly that he was absentminded about such things. Back at his repair shop, once a repair job was done, he jumped on to the next item on his list and so forth until the late hours of the night and sometimes well into the morning. By the time he finally got around to cleaning up, he was always too tired to do a decent job and would settle for a "cluttered" workspace while making plans to clean it up later after another job. Funny how that cycle always seemed to repeat itself.

Still, he knew of his own shortcomings, so he had prepared for such an occurrence by placing notes in specific spots inside his satchel which he knew he would access first. It only made sense that he clean up the place beforehoof as to avoid tripping over debris and such, seeing as he would be adding to the mess once he started bringing down walls, plaster, pulling floorboards and such.

Admittedly though, for somepony like Klondike who lacked daily practice in such a chore, cleaning up a place that had fallen to decades of disuse was a tall order.

It took him almost the entire day to clean up the kitchen, foyer, dining room, and living room. He had filled a lot of buckets with debris which he took out to a small cart outside to be dumped properly when the job was done. Old curtains had been brought down, floors had been swept, windows cleaned, and cobwebs removed.

The entire first floor of the Crimson Rose was ready to be worked on. The second floor would have to wait for the next day.

It had been a good hard day's work… and yet, there was one thing that kept bothering him.

Klondike was an annoyingly absentminded pony. While focusing on a job, a party could form around him and he wouldn't be the wiser, his twitching right ear appearing to be the only subconscious part of him aware that anything was going on at all. It wasn't that he did it on purpose; on the contrary, he always tried his best to not let his work consume his thoughts or let his thoughts wonder too much. In fact, since moving to Ponyville he had improved a great deal, but it was still a rather annoying flaw in his character. He knew that such a job as his current one would consume his thoughts entirely. It was a fact.

A fact which only made it stranger that he had not been able to shake the feeling that somepony else was in the house with him.

Since entering the Crimson Rose, his right ear had hardly stopped twitching while a nagging feeling at the back of his mind told him that he was not alone. It had been such an odd occurrence for Klondike that at one point he stopped what he was doing, and did a quick search of the house from basement to attic, looking for the mare.

That had been another strange thing about the whole thing. For whatever reason, he was convinced he was looking for a mare. Constantly referring to the pony in question as a "her" and a "she." However, when his search for the pony turned up empty, he had decided that perhaps he was more tired and hungry than he realized and that he should finish cleaning up and continue the search the following day.

And now, as he sat absentmindedly looking out the window, the feeling that somepony else was still in the house was stronger than before…

* * *

><p>*twinkle*<p>

"Hmm? Oh yeah, such a nice dinner, thank you for the wonderful music... Would be nice to have some company except… hmm, I wonder what they'd say about the whole breakfast nook dinner thingy?"

No sooner had Klondike said this that he suddenly felt an icy chill run down his back. He turned around to see behind him. There was nothing there except for his satchels near the corner and the lamp he had brought in for light.

"I'd say I used to do it all the time…"

Klondike was right to think somepony else was there with him.

Wind-Chime had been sitting next to him since he sat down to eat his dinner. In fact, the entire day she and her brother Crimson had been hot on his tail following him around the house. Her brother though, had insisted that she keep further away from him but she had been too excited by the prospect of having somepony new to talk to and didn't pay attention to him. The excitement was not shared by her brother.

They had been arguing the entire day, back and forth, about the odd blue coated pony with the icy blue mane that had entered their house. She honestly couldn't recall the last time her and Crimson argued like that before. She couldn't understand her brother's animosity towards the pony trying to fix their home. He was obviously not trying to harm the house, and had even taken the time to clean it up.

Her brother though kept arguing against him and even warned her not to get too cozy around the odd pony. Needless to say, she wasn't at all happy about that and in the end, they split up to cool their hoofs. Crimson returned to the attic, while she remained observing Klondike.

And now, as she sat down trying to pat Klondike on the back, only to have her hoof go through him, she couldn't help but wonder if indeed she was being silly about the whole thing.

*sigh* "Maybe Crimson is right. I am being stubborn about all this..." She couldn't help but look sad as she observed Klondike take another bite of his sandwich and shiver a bit.

*twinkle*

She looked away from Klondike and up at her beloved wind chime. It was glowing in the last rays of the setting sun and, thanks to Klondike's care, it looked as beautiful as she remembered it. She couldn't help but smile warmly at it and the pony responsible for it.

"Thank you… for cleaning my wind chime. It looks and sounds beautiful."

"Yup, it definitely is a beauty…" Klondike picked up his cup of coffee and took a sip from it as he looked at the wind chime.

Wind-Chime's jaw nearly hit the floor. She stood up and floated over to look at Klondike directly in the eyes as he took another sip of his coffee. It looked like he was looking right back at her.

"C-can you hear me?" She asked with a hint of hope in her voice but Klondike simply turned to look out the window and took yet another sip of his coffee. Wind-Chime's hopes immediately deflated and she sat down in front of him with an even sadder expression across her face as she turned to look out the window as well.

"I-I… I guess not huh?" The room temperature dropped even more and she could hear Klondike shiver some more.

"You should close the window now… Don't want you getting sick because of me." She said as she looked down at the floor and tried to prevent a sniffle from escaping. She wasn't very successful.

*…sniff…*  
>*twinkle*<p>

Klondike's right ear twitched a bit as he set his now empty coffee cup on the floor and stood up to walk over to the window and close it. Wind-Chime simply looked up startled and observed him carefully as he walked back over to his spot and lay down, folding his legs underneath himself instead of sitting. He wore a content look across his face as he began to nibble some more on his sandwich, not bothering to lift the plate from the floor. She simply kept looking at him, a confused expression replacing the sad one.

"Huh?..." Wind-Chime slowly lay down as well and folded her hooves underneath herself, mimicking Klondike.

"My, what a relaxing evening it is tonight." She commented as she looked at Klondike appraisingly.

"Yup, definitely relaxing. I should fix the kitchen first so that way I can have more relaxing evenings like tonight." He commented as he thoughtfully chewed on his sandwich.

Wind-Chime blinked a few times and then practically squeaked with delight. If she couldn't have an actual conversation with the pony, she would at least try to improvise and pretend.

"But you did such a great job cleaning the house so far. My brother may not appreciate it but I do!"

Klondike took another bite of his sandwich and continued to chew thoughtfully.

"And these sandwiches you brought are delicious. Are these your favorite?"

"Sweet Celestia these are good sandwiches. Should have stopped by that restaurant and picked up more."

Wind-Chime looked at what was left of the sandwich on the plate and simply smiled at Klondike.

"No worries about it. We can share if you don't mind. I don't eat much…" She paused for a second as she thought about what she just said and slightly giggled. "Actually, I don't eat at all! Hehe!"

She stomped her hoof on the floor a few times and then smiled while she took a bite of the sandwich on the plate. Of course her teeth just phased through the sandwich, but she still pretended like she was chewing and enjoying it.

"Mmm, these are good! You'll have to show me where you get them from one of these days."

Wind-Chime continued to pretend to be chewing and taking bites from the sandwich as Klondike actually took bites from it and chewed. She was timing it so that they never both took a bite from the sandwich at the same time. She couldn't help but to smile and giggle constantly since she was truly enjoying herself. She had already forgotten the argument with her brother.

* * *

><p>Time flew by and before either of them realized it, the sun had already set and Klondike could not help but let out a long yawn as he finished the last of his sandwich. It was infectious, and even though Wind-Chime couldn't be tired, or breathe for that matter, she could not help but try and stifle her own yawn.<p>

"This has been a very enjoyable evening. Thank you for the company." She tried to stifle another yawn and looked across at Klondike as he then tried to stifle his own. "Hehe, you made me yawn so I made you yawn."

Klondike looked at his empty coffee cup and turned his head to look at his almost empty tin coffee pot. Wind-Chime followed his cue and looked at the empty coffee cup with a small pout.

"Oh dear, maybe some more coffee would help keep me awake. Could I bother you for another cup of coffee? You simply make it divine."

And if on cue, Klondike poured the last drops from his coffee pot and set it back down again where it was.

"Ah, thank you! You are such a gentlepony." She said with a flirtatious smile and proceeded to pretend to take a sip from the coffee cup on the floor. She had been too caught up in the moment and didn't realize Klondike was doing the same.

She suddenly found herself with her muzzle touching his, as they both tried to drink from the same cup at the same time. Klondike's icy blue eyes seemed to be staring deep into hers and she could feel her face growing hot. She froze for a few seconds as her own eyes looked straight back into his. They had a gentleness and kindness about them that seemed to pull her further in.

Wind-Chime quickly pulled her head back up, flustered, and sat up on her haunches as she began to look awkwardly around the kitchen, her hoofs trying to conceal the blushing she felt across her muzzle. It was a feeling, nothing more, she doubted ghost could blush but it was more a reflex than anything.

"I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention and-" She stopped as she noticed Klondike roll over onto his side and lay very still.

"OH MY GOODNESS! ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU-"

Klondike's chest rose and fell as a shallow but steady snoring began to emanate from him.

"You're asleep! How? You drank a whole pot of coffee a-and you fell asleep?"

She watched him shift a bit to make himself more comfortable. There was a content, but tired expression on his face as he continued to sleep soundly.

"B-but… I wanted to talk some more a-and I didn't mean to kis-" She stopped as she continued to watch him sleep. He looked so peaceful, content, and tired at the same time.

Wind-Chime let out a sigh and looked around the kitchen. She had observed him clean the whole first floor of the house, and tomorrow he had much more work to do. He had put a lot of effort into his work and she doubted tomorrow would be any different. Was it really fair for her to want him to stay up longer to talk? Could she even justify it seeing as it had been one long, one-sided conversation? She let out another sigh and stepped over to stand next to the sleeping pony as she looked down at him with a kind expression on her face. She kept looking at him for a few minutes.

"Maybe tomorrow we can do this again. Thank you for all your hard work and for talking with me umm…"

*mumble* "Mmm-name's Klondike…"

Wind-Chime's expression changed to surprise as she continued to look down at Klondike.

"E-e-excuse me?"

"Klondike…Miss?..." Klondike replied through mumbles and snores.

"W-Wind-Chime…" She replied hesitantly as she continued to blink in disbelief at what was going on.

*mumble* "Beautiful… voice…" With that, Klondike shifted one more time and continued to snore more deeply.

Wind-Chime just continued to stare in disbelief. He had told her his name and he even asked for hers. A whole evening of her pretending to talk to him and now that he was sound asleep, he was actually talking to her. She could not help but think it was some kind of prank being done by her brother Crimson to get back at her for the argument they had earlier.

That had to be it.

He was hiding under the floorboards mimicking the pony's voice and talking to her like it was him. Well, she would have none of it. She was going to give him a piece of her mind.

Wind-Chime immediately stuck her head through the floorboards and immediately jerked her head back out after noticing a distinct lack of her brother Crimson. She looked up at the ceiling, around the kitchen, but there was no sign of him. She looked back at the sleeping form of Klondike near her hooves, blinking several times in disbelief.

"K-Klondike?"

"Mhmmm?..."

It was not possible. And yet, here it was. Had so many years of solitude with no one to talk to but her brother, finally had an effect on her?

She hesitantly reached a hoof out to touch him. She didn't know why, but her hoof seemed to be moving on its own. It slowly inched its way towards his raising and falling side. She couldn't stop, even if she wanted to.

She touched him. It was solid and… warm?

Wind-Chime's expression was unreadable. Almost blank with shock at what she was doing. She was touching Klondike. Her hoof wasn't going through him like before and she could actually feel the warmth of his body. She just kept her hoof on him for what felt like an eternity as she felt his side rise and fall. She was mesmerized by it.

She was suddenly hesitant to pull her hoof away, afraid that if she did she wouldn't be able to touch him again. So instead, sitting down on her haunches, she took her other hoof and tried to touch him with it as well. Again, it was solid and warm, and she now had both of her hooves resting on Klondike's side.

Her face was suddenly ecstatic. She had both her hooves on Klondike and they weren't going through him.

Hesitantly, she raised one hoof while keeping the other on him and then brought it back down. It was still solid, she could still touch him. She immediately repeated the process with her other hoof and again had the same result.

Back and forth she went from one hoof to the other and pretty soon it looked like she was beating a steady beat on Klondike's side, as if he were a drum of sorts. She was giggling the entire time, looking joyfully at the pony in front of her whom she was able to touch.

Wind-Chime was being as gentle as she could, not wanting to disturb the sleeping pony. She didn't want to hurt him, and she didn't want him wake up, but she didn't want to give up the wonderful sensation of being able to touch another pony. It looked more like she was giving him a gentle massage rather than a beating. She felt like she could keep doing that for the entire night.

She probably would have, except…

"CHIME? WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

"EEEP!"

Crimson's head had suddenly shot through the ceiling of the kitchen as he called out to her. In her fright, Wind-Chime pulled her hooves from Klondike's side and raised them up to her muzzle to prevent her from screaming louder than she already had. Klondike had been talking to her just a couple of minutes ago. Or was it an hour? She had lost track of time and honestly didn't want to wake him up if he could still hear her.

"I wasn't doing anything Crimmy!"

"Why are you sitting so close to him! I told you not to get too comfortable around him!"

Wind-Chime shot him a glare that made him cringe and dropped the temperature in the kitchen a few degrees. As soon as she heard Klondike shiver though, she turned around to look at him and tried to calm down.

"Shhhh! I was only watching him sleep Crimmy… I don't want to wake him up."

"Wake him up? He. Can't. Hear. You. Or. See. You!"

"You're wrong…"

"What?..."

She was about to tell him about her entire experience that night, but decided against it, choosing to try and convince him of Klondike's good intentions one last time.

"He really is a nice pony. So far he's been nothing but kind, gentle, and hardworking. Why can't you see that? I mean, look at this place. He cleaned it up in one day. Imagine how much better our house will look tomorrow, or the day after that?"

Crimson though, just continued to look down from the ceiling and after a minute, he let out a defeated grunt and looked at his sister with the utmost level expression he could muster.

"Fine… We'll let him work. Just-" He stopped himself mid-sentence as he noticed his sister staring at him. His head slowly began to disappear back into the roof again.

"Goodnight…" He called out as his head sank further into the ceiling.

"I love you big brother…"

"Love you too little sis…"

With that, the kitchen was once again vacant with the exception of Klondike and Wind-Chime. Klondike, however, was still shivering as the kitchen seemed to get colder and colder. The source of it though, was quite obvious. Wind-Chime had just realized she had removed her hooves off of Klondike and was desperately trying to lay them on him again.

Her hooves effortlessly went right through him as they had before.

After several attempts, she stopped all together and remained sitting next to Klondike, sadly looking at him. She was doing her best not to bring up her hooves up to her face to try and dry tears she knew would not be there. She was afraid that if she did, she might miss the opportunity again to touch him like she had before. But, after a while, she sadly decided that she should just return to the attic for the night, and let him sleep comfortably without her being there to turn the room into an ice box.

Wind-Chime let out a few sniffles as she floated up into the ceiling, and the wind chime let out a twinkle as its owner vanished.

Klondike groggily opened one eye and looked around for a second, a concerned expression slightly forming on his face for no reason he could discern in his half asleep state before he closed his eye, and went back to sleep.


	5. Cat's Out of the Bag

Cat's Out of the Bag

The kitchen and most of the first floor of the Crimson Rose looked different than it had before. After 6 days of Klondike working on it, it kind of had to. Throughout the days following his arrival to the decrepit house, he had put a lot of effort into his work and it was slowly starting to show. When he was not working, he was admiring his work, making sure that he did not miss anything vital and planning out how to go about the rest of the job. And, when he was not admiring his work, he was working.

The basement, dining room, foyer and staircase were all done and looking in tip-top shape, ready for new residents. And, although the kitchen had been first on his list, for some reason he could not explain, he had bumped it down a few times. But, finally deciding that enough procrastination had been well, enough, he set his sights on the kitchen and had been working on it for the most part of two days.

"Welp, let's see how far along I am…" Klondike commented to himself as he wiped his brow and laid the hammer he had in his muzzle on the floor.

Taking a few steps back from the floorboards he was fixing in place inside the kitchen, he began to admire his own work, beginning with the walls.

All the walls had been stripped of their once crumbling stucco layer and now stood baring the wood behind for all the inhabitants of the house to see. Some sections of wall had new wooden planks while other sections held on to their older wood, having been deemed stable enough to not need replacing. Behind the sections of newer wood however, new brass pipes made their way from one side of the house to the other, where the counter tops and such were located. Although some of the pipes were still good, he had replaced them all, wanting to make sure that the future residents of the Crimson Rose would have running water to clean and help cook their foods.

As if following the pipes through the wall, Klondike's gaze traveled from one end of the room towards the other end with the cooking area.

The kitchen counters and cabinets had been replaced along with the kitchen sink and wood burning stove. Klondike had been unable to resist making a few jokes about the kitchen sink. He replaced the wood burning stove with a more modern one, however, he had been unable to come up with a good joke for the stove, but that didn't stop him from trying.

His gaze shifted again and he began to look at the floorboards.

Almost all the floorboards had been replaced. Some of the older floorboards had been cracked and warped, but most of them had simply been too old and faded by years of lacking proper care. He decided that replacing all of them would be the best option. The only section of the floor that still needed new floorboards was the section he was currently working on.

It had been hard work but at the pace he was preceding, he would surely be done in time to return to Ponyville and enjoy the Harvest Festival.

Yup, it was a simple pace he had fallen into, one which he enjoyed. It kept him busy and since he was alone, he didn't have to worry about being rude to anypony for not paying attention or accidentally ignoring them while off in his own head. He could focus on his work, and nothing more.

He smiled as he walked back to his unfinished portion of the floor and leaned down to pick up the hammer again.

"I guess after I'm done here I should move onto the living room and then up the stai-" His right ear suddenly twitched and he paused right before picking up the hammer. Turning his head up to look at the ceiling, he made his way out of the kitchen into the dining room and across the foyer into the living room. His gaze was still fixated on the ceiling as he sat on his haunches in the middle of the room.

"What do you suppose he's looking at this time?"

"He's okay…"

As Klondike stood in the living room, two figures floated into the room with him.

"Well, whatever it is, he better hurry up and finish the kitchen and the rest of the house. I want him out of here as soon as possible."

"Yeah, maybe he's just thinking..."

Crimson could not help but look at his sister with a hint of confusion and some concern. For a few days now, she had been rather gloomy, quiet, and distracted. It was not an unheard of event, but it usually never lasted more than a day. This however, felt different. All his conversations with her when she returned to the attic from her daily observation sessions of the annoying dark blue pony with the icy colored mane felt one sided. It always felt like she was one or two steps behind the conversation, assuming she answered his questions at all.

Something had happened, and he did not know what. He had never been good at this sort of thing, and as such had avoided asking her what was up. But today, he decided he had had enough.

"Okay, what's the deal?"

Wind-Chime simply kept looking at Klondike as he sat in the living room, a longing expression across her features. She hadn't even realized her brother had asked her anything. In fact, the only thing she was aware of was Klondike and the feelings of… unfairness, and of want?

Yes, if she had put names to the feelings she felt, it would be those. Unfairness and wanting…

* * *

><p>She had been feeling like that since the first night after Klondike arrived to the Crimson Rose. Since the night when she had been able to speak to him, touch him, and feel the warmth of another living pony. It had been something she had not been able to do for many years, and to suddenly be able to do it again and be reminded of what it was like, only to be denied once more had been a cruel turn of events. She wanted to feel that again, and it was unfair that she couldn't.<p>

That night, after she returned to the attic, after desperately having tried to touch Klondike again, she had simply sat near the window and looked out at the world shrouded in darkness. It had taken a while for her to stop sniffling and trying to dry away tears that were never there.

Still, as she stared out the window, she found herself longing for the sun to rise again so that Klondike would wake up and begin his work. A sudden floodgate of emotions and thoughts seemed to break and let out its contents. She slowly realized she wanted to observe the odd pony do his work around the house as she had earlier. She wanted to learn more about Klondike and wanted more opportunities to talk to him and touch him if she could, like she had before.

It was a torrential mixture of emotions and thoughts as she sat next to that window. But above all of it, above everything she felt. She realized that what she felt the most was greed… and anger towards her brother.

It was his fault for scaring her that she removed her hoofs from Klondike's side and it was him who constantly reminded her that he couldn't hear or see her.

Why should she share her discovery with him?

Why should she share that incredible feeling of being able to touch with him of all ponies?

Since that morning, all Crimson wanted was for Klondike to pack-up and leave the Crimson Rose. For reasons she did not understand, he had made his judgment of him and wanted him gone. How could somepony be so hardheaded? All he had to do was sit back and watch Klondike work to realize that he meant no harm to the house.

No, she would not tell him. She would keep her secret to herself.

And she had done just that.

She had not told her brother anything about what happened and did her best to be "normal" around him as to not let him know that she was angry at him. Let alone that she was hiding a secret from him. The end result though had been a cold shoulder, even more so by her standards.

Every day since then, she had spent her time floating after Klondike by herself as he worked around the house. Whenever he paused to take a break or eat, she tried to talk him again, but never got a reply.

At night, she sat across from him like she had before and tried to talk to him again. She was deliberately repeating her actions from that night to see if she could touch him again. At some point, she felt she would settle for him to simply say "hi" to her.

Klondike for the most part, seemed to like to comment to himself while eating lunch or dinner. This gave Wind-Chime plenty of opportunities to "converse" with him. Sometimes though, her nightly conversations with Klondike grew dry, with him remaining quiet or not providing anything for her to improvise with. On those occasions, she would simply talk about herself and the things she used to enjoy when she was alive, and even what she enjoyed now.

She told him about her love for flowers, and how they used to grow them on their farm. How she used to wake up and look out her window to see fields draped in vibrant columns of colorful flowers, each different from its neighboring column.

She spoke about the incredibly fun times she used to have during this time of year at the Ponyville Harvest Festival, back when Ponyville was barely starting to grow. How she used to love to eat pumpkin pie and all other sorts of fall treats while the rest of the ponies danced and chatted amongst themselves.

She told him of her favorite foods, her favorite colors, her favorite books and hobbies. She spent countless hours telling him funny stories, old stories and sad or happy stories. But, above all though, she told him about her love for her wind chime.

It had been the thing that helped her discover her cutie mark. She had always had a fondness for the music created by the simple decorations, and had made her fair share of them to hang across the fields. But, it had not been till the day she made that particular wind chime as an anniversary present for her parents that she realized her love for making them. She had poured everything into it, her love and soul. The end result had been beautiful.

* * *

><p>Still, as she tried to pull herself out of her reverie, recalling everything she had told Klondike while she observed him work for almost a week, she could not help but feel an all too familiar warm sensation across her muzzle. It had been becoming more and more prevalent the longer she spent observing the odd pony. Aside from her brother, even when she was still alive, she had never really spoken to anypony as much as she had with Klondike, even if it was all one sided.<p>

Today though had been different from previous days. It had so far been too quiet. At some point, around the time Klondike began to pull floorboards and had finished with the kitchen walls and cabinets, Crimson had finally decided to come down from the attic to join her in her constant observations of Klondike.

Admittedly it had only been for a few hours, but it had been enough for Crimson to grow more concerned than before and realize something had changed.

Crimson kept looking at his sister and hesitantly raised a hoof to wave in front of her. He had a rather confused expression on his face.

"Hello? Chime? I'm talking to you!"

"H-huh…?"

At that point Klondike's right ear twitched again and an immediate smile formed across his muzzle. He turned around and trotted out of the living room towards the foyer and up the stairs towards the second floor. Wind-Chime's eyes never left him until he crossed between her and Crimson. She couldn't help it. Crimson's stare had turned into a frightening glare.

"Okay, what was that?"

"What was what?"

"That! That look you've been giving him! What happened?"

Wind-Chime floated a few inches away from Crimson as he stomped a hoof on the floor and small pillars of dust rained down from the ceiling.

"Nothing happened!" She replied defensively as the room began to grow cold and a slight frost began to crawl across the nearest window.

Crimson though, wasn't falling for it and he was starting to lose his temper. It was not like that one night when they argued, this felt different to him. She was hiding something and worst of all she was lying to her own brother. He stomped another hoof on the floor but this time the house seemed to tremble a bit.

"Chime, you're such a bad liar! What happened! What did you do! What did he do!" He struck another hoof on the floor and this time a window cracked as the house visibly trembled.

Wind-Chime though, had already backed out of the living room and was floating in the foyer, creeping frost already covering most of the walls and floorboards. She had only seen her brother this angry twice before, and it had been around the time when their father had… and she had...

Her expression became soft and she stopped floating and landed on the floor in front of her brother. He was angry, but not angry out of malice. He was angry because he was sad. Whatever anger she felt towards him seemed to evaporate at that moment.

"Oh Crimmy, you are such a-a dodo…"

Crimson backed away a little. Being called a dodo was the last thing he expected at that moment.

"I-I… but you can't… HEY! You can't just call me a dodo! I'm angry! That ain't fair! How am I supposed to be angry when you call me such childish names?"

Crimson stomped his hoof on the floor again but this time not even the dust bunnies moved.

"Because I'm your sister and I can call you whatever I want… dodo." She floated over to him and with a hoof ruffled his mane before giving him a hug. "I'm sorry Crimmy… I didn't want to lie to you, but you just made me so angry..."

"You were angry at me? But… I… and you…FAIR! This ain't fair! I-I… and then you… Gosh darn it!"

Whatever anger and sadness Crimson felt, it had suddenly vanished. Instead, he simply hugged Wind-Chime back as he let out a defeated and low sounding sigh.

"I'm sorry too Chime. You know I just worry about you, right?"

"I know Crimmy. You worry me too…"

"I'm not a dodo…"

"I know silly."

"Love you little sis…"

"Love you too big brother…"

They stood there in the opening between the foyer and the living room, hugging each other. That is, until Crimson's eyes shot wide and he pulled away to look at his sister.

"Wait… you lied to me?"

"Oh! Umm, that… I guess I let that slip, hehe."

"Chime? What did you lie about?"

"Oh, umm, well you see I-I… sort of spoke with Klondike."

"Who?"

"The pony that's fixing up the place…"

"Oh, so his name's KlonYOU SPOKE WITH HIM!"

The house trembled again as Crimson suddenly pulled away and held Wind-Chime at foreleg's length. He was shaking her like a rag doll as her head and mane tossed around.

"Youspokewithhim? Whendidyouspeakwithhim? Howdidyouspeakwithhim! Whydidyouspeakwithhim!"

"Stop…shaking… me!... You're… making… me… dizzy… and… I… can't… understand… you!"

Crimson suddenly let her go and she plopped heavily with her haunches on the floor. If ghost could look sick, she was the spitting image of it.

"Ow Crimmy… Honestly, I didn't think talking to him was as bad as when I touched h-" Her hooves suddenly shot up to cover her mouth as her eyes grew large as saucers and she stared at Crimson. She had let the cat out of the bag.

"You WHAT!"

The house trembled more violently than any time before. Stucco from the ceiling in the living room broke loose and fell to the floor with resounding thuds as every piece of wood in the old house creaked in protest. A spot on the living room's ceiling in particular was practically screaming in protest as wood began to crack and snap. Without any other warning, a section of the ceiling broke loose and fell with a heavy crash onto the floor below.

No sooner had the section of ceiling hit the floor that a dark blue colored object fell on top of it with a resounding meaty smack and a slight bounce before limply rolling onto its side.

Both Crimson and Wind-Chime looked at the chaos and sprawled figure that lay on the floor. Both of them had increasing horrified looks across their faces.

"Oh my goodness! Klondike!"

Wind-Chime rushed over to him and quickly began to try and prod him with her muzzle.

"Oh no! The ceiling!"

Crimson on the other hoof rushed over to the spot and looked up at the hole in the ceiling that gave way to the second floor.

Wind-Chime shot him a dirty look and smacked him on the back of the head.

"Ow! Sorry… I mean, oh no Clownbike!"

"Klondike!"

"Okay okay! Sorry, I just found out his name! How am I supposed to remem-"

"Shut up!"

Crimson just bit his lip and began to circle around Klondike till he was across from where Wind-Chime had laid down next to him while she continued to try and prod him with her muzzle. It was in vain of course as she constantly kept fazing through him.

"Oh my goodness… you killed him Crimson."

Wind-Chime began to sob and sniffle as the burning sensation of tears that would never be there began to burn at her eyes. Crimson looked on at the sight. He didn't like Klondike, but he didn't want this.

"Chime… I-I… it was an accident… I…"

A shallow moan and a twitch of a right ear suddenly brought all eyes on the still figure of Klondike. Both Wind-Chime and Crimson looked at him in shock.

"Ooooww… I should've… run out of the room faster… ow."

"Klon-Klondike *sniff* are you okay?"

Klondike didn't respond but simply let out a shallow grunt as his tail flicked a bit and his right ear twitched. Wind-Chime's sniffles and sobs grew less and less as she began to smile and looked up at Crimson. Crimson on the other hand, simply let out a sigh of relief that he had not caused the pony's demise. He was not looking forward to an eternity with his sister hating him.

"Crimson, he's okay! We need to get help!"

"How? You can't leave the house and I can't get very far outside."

"But…"

A sudden creaking sound pulled both their attentions to the ceiling. They looked up in time to see a large free standing closet that had been standing too close to the hole tip over and fall through it, making it bigger. It flipped in the air once before it landed with a resounding crash on top of Klondike. The doors on the closet landed on top and slightly swung open before slamming closed again, as if signaling the closing door on the issue.

The only thing left visible of the poor pony was his icy blue tail as it stuck out from beneath the wooden piece of furniture.

Wind-Chime's expression was a mixture of horror and shock as her jaw nearly hit the floor.

Crimson on the other hoof…

"Ah ponyfeathers… now he's definitely dead."


	6. Welcome Back

Welcome Back

The Crimson Rose lay deathly silent. The last echoes of any noise or disturbance in the house had long since already faded away into nothing. The only evidence that there had ever been any form of a disturbance in the house, aside from the tools and section of unfinished floor in the kitchen, were the minuet particles of dust that still lingered in the air around a particular piece of furniture in the living room.

A free standing closet, which had once held beautiful but simple garments for a young pony mare, now lay in the living room on its back with its two doors pointing towards the hole in the ceiling through which it fell thru. To any pony that entered the house and saw this particular piece laying on the floor, it would have seem rather odd but perhaps would simply attribute its new placement to a lost battle between time and old wood, and its own weight as it bore down on a weakened spot of the floor. The whole thing would have been a valid assumption too…

At least that is until this hypothetical pony noticed the cold layer of frost on every surface and the icy blue tail that lay lifelessly on the floor as it stuck out from underneath the closet. After that, all bets would have definitely been off.

"AAARRGGGHH!"

"NO WAIT!"

Two ponies suddenly fell through a wall in the living room tumbling and wrestling on the floor. One pony was fumbling on his back, desperately raising his hooves to cover his head and plead for mercy. The other pony though…

"You killed him Crimson! He only wanted to fix the house!"

"It was an accident!"

"I know that!"

"Then why *OOF* are you still OUCH hitting me?"

"Because you're a bad pony and you killed him!"

Crimson managed to rise to his hooves and immediately lifted a foreleg to protect his head, confident that after renewing the cyclical argument he was engaged in with his sister he had finally learned her pattern of attack. However, he wasn't expecting Wind-Chime to quickly side step around him and turn around to buck him through another wall. Crimson was starting to realize that eternity for him was going to be spent getting thrown around by his sister.

Good thing they were ghosts though. If not, the house would have been demolished a while ago.

Still venting her anger, Wind-Chime quickly gave chase as a thicker layer of frost grew on every surface. The closet which had fallen on Klondike was left alone in the living room.

* * *

><p>Klondike woke up in a dark place confused and slightly light headed. His body felt odd and heavy and he could hear the echo of his breathing. His ears were ringing and his head was hurting. It was a familiar feeling, a feeling that he always had when he woke up from a particular dream. He had had the same dream on a few occasions before, but he never liked it. It was always so confusing and he always woke up with a headache, except... this time around something had been different.<p>

_"What was that about?..."_He couldn't help but think to himself as he recalled the ever increasing fragmented and fading dream.

The dream always started the same. He would suddenly be in a dark room, similar to the place he was in now. After a few minutes, voices would begin to pour out of nowhere and he'd start remembering events from his earlier life. The voices were familiar ones. Family, friends, teachers, and almost all the ponies he had interacted with in his life and had some influence in it seemed to be speaking to him at the same time. This combined with a never ending flash back of remembering events and thoughts, usually meant that he was way more absentminded than he would ever be while awake.

This would always complicate the next part of the dream.

A cloak and hooded figure of a pony would suddenly appear before him carrying some kind of farming tool. He always had the feeling he had met the figure before then, not in a dream but, maybe in a dream like… dream? He could honestly never make sense of that feeling and it would eventually get muffled down by the voices and memories. So, he would always do the proper thing and introduce himself.

The figure would begin talking to him and he would try and listen but again would soon get lost in the voices and memories that poured forth from the darkness. This in turn would make the figure angry and he'd begin yelling at him always towards the end of the dream. Then, with an exasperated grunt what he could swear was relief; the figure would grab that tool of his and smack him on the head with the wooden end. It always hurt and he always woke up afterwards.

But now, as he moved around in the darkness, feeling broken pieces of wood around him and being unable to lift his tail, he was trying harder to remember the dream before it completely faded away…

* * *

><p>Klondike was standing in the dark room again, and the voices had already started pouring forth along with the memories. He turned left and right while his right ear twitched furiously and tried to swivel in every direction it could, causing him to turn his attention to every spot in the room but the one in front of him.<p>

Suddenly, the unknown figure came forth, holding its farming tool in its mouth and began speaking to him uninhibited by it.

"Welcome lost one… to the life that lay beyond your mortal coil. This here was your life, beginning to end. Cherish it and AH HORSEAPPLES! It's you again…" The rehearsed speech suddenly stopped and the figure spat the scythe onto the floor and glared at Klondike. The figure never seemed happy to see him.

"Hi! I'm Klond-"

"I KNOW WHO YOU ARE! WHY ARE YOU HERE AGAIN?

"No need to be rude, just trying to be frie-"

"SHUT UP! WHAT DID YOU DO THIS TIME, HUH?"

"I said hi to you and you told me to shut up?"

The cloaked figure suddenly dashed towards him, hovering above the ground, and stopped right in front of him. Klondike could never see properly into the hood of the cloak, but he could swear the eyes of this particular pony glowed.

"YOU'RE HERE TO ANNOY ME AGAIN AREN'T YOU!" The figure let out a heavy sigh and landed on the floor. Klondike could only stammer a bit at such an accusation and quickly tried to clarify.

"E-excuse me? I'm not trying to anno-"

"Quiet! What did you do this time? HUH? Fall down another mountain?"

"I don't recall falling down any mountain…"

The cloaked figure narrowed his eyes and pulled out an overly sized giant book from his cloak and began to hoof through it before finding what he was looking for. He turned it towards Klondike and began to pound on the page for him to read.

"Right here! See? During the Running of the Leaves Race a few months back you went up a mountain, weren't paying attention, slipped, slid down the face of the mountain, shot off a ledge into the tree line, broke every bone as you broke every tree branch in your trajectory and died before landing!"

Klondike though had only been paying half attention and was currently looking in the direction of one of the voices. It was the voice of his carpentry teacher.

"Huh? Oh yeah, the race. It was a lot of fun and everypony did a great job. I ended up with a few scratches but it wa-"

"NO YOU DIDN'T! You died, came here, annoyed me like you are now, like you always do, and I sent you back just in time so that you could hit the ground HARD and hopefully knock some awareness into you so that you pay attention when somepony is talking to… to…YOU AREN'T EVEN LISTENING TO ME RIGHT NOW ARE YOU?"

"I'm sorry… You said something." Klondike had his head turned in the direction of another voice. This time it was of a cute mare he was talking to right before a pressurized pudding machine he was supposed to be fixing exploded and took off a chip from his right ear.

The cloaked figure appeared to be close to going into a rage as he began to stomp his forelegs on the ground and uttered nonsense into the void. Finally though, he simply ran back to his scythe and picked it up again before looking back at Klondike with daggers in his glowing eyes. Klondike, was once again distracted as a memory of him getting his cutie mark swam forth in front of him.

"YOU KNOW WHAT! NO! I'm tired of sending you back just so you can keep coming back here and annoying me!"

The figure started to run towards him bellowing and ready to strike him down.

"I don't care if I'm breaking the rules and it isn't your time yet! I'm going to enjoy reaping your annoying distracted soOOOOUAHHHH!"

The figure had reached Klondike with amazing speed and swung furiously... only to swing at the empty air where Klondike's head was mere fractions of a second ago. Klondike now had his head on the ground with his twitching right ear pressed against the floor. This time it was the voice of his grandpa that he was hearing. The figure simply stumbled onto the floor next to his giant book, carried by the momentum of his swing.

"Stand still you… you… huh?" The figure caught sight of the last notes written on the page on which the book was open to.

"You… you're at the Crimson Rose? How the heck did you manage to die in there? Are you really that… that…"

He began to read the page further and then suddenly stood up before quickly picking up the book and flipping through the pages. Taking one quick glance at a particular page and then looking from the book towards Klondike, and then back to the book again, he couldn't help but be incredibly shocked at what he was reading.

"I-I don't believe this. Y-you might actually be useful for PAY ATTENTION!"

Klondike suddenly startled and looked at the cloaked figure. His expression though revealed that he might have actually forgotten the cloaked pony was there at all.

"Huh? Oh, Hi! When did you come in? Name's Klond-"

"Yes I know!"

The figure suddenly dropped the book and zoomed towards Klondike to grab his face in his hooves and stare intently into his eyes. He was squeezing rather hard, almost like if he was trying to crush a watermelon.

"Listen Klondike, and listen well. I can't believe I'm saying this but you might actually be able to help me."

Klondike simply blinked and the figure took it to mean he might actually be paying attention.

"Okay, in that house there are two ponies wh-"

"I'm the only one in there. I'm fixing up the place for its new owners."

"No, listen you blue colored thorn in my a… *sigh* Okay… Okay… There are two ponies in there. They're ghosts. You need to help them fulfill their last desires. What they wanted most before they died. You need to do that BEFORE the upcoming Harvest Festival. If not, they will never EVER be able to leave. Do that for me, and I'll be able to erase their names from my list and finally be able to send them off to a better life. As a bonus, I'll make it so that you never EVER come back here again and annoy me… Until your appointed time that is, during which I will come after you with gusto. Deal?"

Klondike again simply blinked and quickly glanced around the room as the cloaked figure still held his head tightly in his hooves. His eyes finally settled on the glowing eyes inside the hood.

"You know, if you like I could come back here and install some lights for you. Your home is kind of dark and makes it hard to seAAHH."

Klondike's head was suddenly let go, causing him to fall on the grounds face first. The cloaked figure , quietly walked over to his scythe again and picked it up from the opposite end in his mouth. The blade of it was dangerously close to his face. As Klondike looked up though, he could see the glowing from his eyes gleaming off the metal edge.

"Remember our deal, Klondike…" The cloaked pony suddenly stood up on his hindquarters and began to pull back his head as he prepared his swing. "You know, they say it's the simple things in life, or in this case the afterlife, that gives us the most pleasure…" A sickly devilish toothy grin grew around the gripped scythe in the hooded pony's mouth as he stood towering over Klondike.

"I guess I should thank you for that... I'm about to become the happiest pony that ever existed."

Klondike smiled with a hint of confusion and looked up at the hooded figure as he began to stand back up.

"You're welcomed, I guess. But, umm, what did I d-"

"Shut up!... And don't move. I want to savor every moment of this."

"Umm... Okay, but why don't you want me to mo-"

Without warning, and with far more glee than a foal at a free candy buffet, the figure swung his upside down scythe and hit Klondike dead center across the head. The resounding crack mostly came from the wooden handle exploding into several pieces... Mostly.

* * *

><p>Klondike finally managed to pull his tail free from underneath the piece of wood that was pinning it down. His head was still hurting something fierce and he couldn't honestly figure out why. The dream had faded away already, like it always did, leaving a mess of fragmented pieces behind. The most prominent of which was something about a deal with some pony. He wasn't sure what it was though, but he vaguely recalled it being important.<p>

He managed to sit-up slightly before hitting his head against another piece of wood. He figured he was in some sort of box, judging from the amount of wood that was around him. It was too dark to tell though, so he just went with the most likely thing. Why a box came to mind, he really couldn't tell. Wouldn't be the first time he woke unsure of what had happened before.

Slowly he moved his tail towards him and began to massage it with one hoof while he massaged his head with the other. The headache wasn't going away as fast as it usually did after having that odd dream. His right ear though, was suddenly coming to life as some kind of argument taking place right outside the box began to reach it.

He began to feel around the box and eventually found out that the top part, the part he hit his head on, could be pushed out to open. Gingerly, he began to do as such and soon enough gravity took care of rest and the door to the wooden box fell open to the side.

The chilly air that suddenly hit Klondike made shudder and he immediately wrapped his forelegs around himself to try and protect himself a bit. He pushed the other door open and now that he could sit up on his haunches properly, he began to look around the area. He was still in the living room and upon closer inspection realized that the wooden box he was in was actually the free standing closet he had seen in the room he had been standing in only a few seconds ago.

Confused as to why he was inside the closet while it lay on the floor of the living room, he immediately looked up and spotted the hole in the ceiling. He let out a sharp whistle as he began to assess the damage.

"Well, that was unfortunate… Going to have to go back to Ponyville and get more wood to be able to fix that floor. Should have planned for such a thi-"

"YOU JERK!"

"STOP!"

Klondike's attention was suddenly pulled away to the initial argument that had made him explore outside his dark closet. Looking off to the side, literally right next to him, were two ponies on the ground fighting. A maroon colored stallion, who was desperately trying to cover his head, was pinned to the ground by another pony. The second pony, a rather cute cream coffee colored mare, was straddling the first pony while she rained down hoof-blow after hoof-blow and argued with him.

"YOU EVIL, EVIL PONY! You didn't like him so you dropped my closet on him!"

"I already said it was an accident! Besides! Maybe he'll be a ghost too and you can finally properly talk to him!"

"Hello?" Klondike tried to get their attention, but it didn't seem to be working.

"He's not going to want to talk to me after he finds out I'm the sister of the pony who DROPPED A CLOSET ON HIM!"

"NO! Not the face again!"

Crimson's forelegs flew up to cover his face again as he prepared for the next onslaught of hoofs from his sister. As he did this though, he turned his head to the side and saw Klondike looking at them while he still sat inside the closet. He was looking at them with a rather confused expression.

"Chime look! He's al-OW! STOP!" He managed to get a hold of Chime's head and turned it in the direct of Klondike. Her eyes immediate grew wide as she noticed him. Klondike simply looked even more confused and began to pull himself out of the closet.

It was deathly silent up until Klondike finally got out of the piece of furniture and sat down on his haunches on the floor. He was still staring at the two ponies in front of him.

Suddenly, without warning, Wind-Chime got off of Crimson and between sobs and sniffles lunged at Klondike. Klondike for his own part was now even more confused, and rather shocked at the fact that there was an unknown pony giving him a rather hard hug and sobbing into his neck.

"Oh my goodness! *sob* You're okay! *sniffle* I thought that closet crushed you! But you're not crushed and only a little bit squishy and warm and… and…"

Wind-Chime suddenly realized that something was different as she remained clinging to Klondike. Crimson had already managed to get back up and was staring dumbfounded at the scene before him. Klondike though, just kept looking at the pony that had her forelegs wrapped around him.

They all stood like that for a good minute before anypony moved. In an odd turn of events though, it was Crimson. He immediately phased through the floor into the basement and left the two ponies in the living room. By now, Wind-Chime could feel that odd warmth fully spread across her muzzle as she remained frozen in place.

Slowly, she pulled her head away from Klondike's neck and looked up at him. He was looking back at her confused.

"Err, umm... Hi! Name's Klondike! Umm, not that you ain't pretty, you're actually rather cute… But, umm, why are you hugging me? Also, how did the pony you were beating up do that just now?"


End file.
